African shield for pleasure and opinion

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky

Thank you all for comments !
Detlef, I see it also very relaxed. They really used material which was available and which they considered nice. (I already wrote, I think, in some old thread, that once, when I was in a desperate need of money, I offered a few pieces of things I brought from Ethiopia to Naprstek´s Muzeum in Prague. The museum has chosen two things and one of them was a wooden vessel, adorments of which were made of green plastics. It was real, used by willagers and very nice artefact ...). I like this shield incliding its aluminium parts and I think aluminium has also been in use in Africa "for a couple of years", from the Second World War at least (I personally consider African artefacts older than 40 years as "old" ones. But the most important is natural beauty - either old or new).
Refards,
Martin

I agree complete with you, I have two well used Halmahera shields (salawaku) in my collection where the inlays are from white plastic!
Both have a very nice patination so I am sure that they were in use for a couple of decades and I like both very much. I think both are from the 40th until 50th last century and in my eyes are good ethnograhic examples for this time when plastic was for this people a new and maybe valuable material.

Regards,
Detlef